Georges I. Gurdjieff
George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff was born 1877 in Alexandropol, Armenia, Russian Empire and died Oct. 29, 1949, in Neuilly, near Paris. He was a Greco-Armenian mystic and philosopher who founded an influential quasi-religious movement. As a youth, growing up in a cultural crossroad between Turkey, Russia, Armenia and Greece, he was subject to a great variety of influences which opened his vision. He taught “The Work” or “the Method”. His teachings related to self-awareness in one’s daily life and humanity’s place in the universe.
Sacred Hymns
A series of piano transcriptions of some solemn, now-dark, now-affirmative religious hymns by one G.I. Gurdjieff, with none of the usual flourishes and heady flights usually associated with Keith Jarrett's solo records. Jarrett assumes the proper devotional position, playing with a steady tread but always with attention to dynamic extremes, producing a gorgeously rich piano tone with plenty of bass.
Moderato cantabile
Cellist Anja Lechner and pianist François Couturier play their own arrangements of Gurdjieff, Komitas and Mompou plus three Couturier pieces, recorded in November 2013 at the Auditorio RSI in Lugano and produced by Manfred Eicher.